Mumbai: Tansa pipeline affected citizens take out morcha against minister

Protesters take out a morcha to Ghatkopar against Mehta. pic/Datta Kumbhar

Residents affected by the slum demolition along Tansa water pipeline are gunning for State Housing Minister Prakash Mehta. After the BMC ordered them to vacate their Kurla building, the residents this morning, took out a morcha, alleging that Mehta had made false promises to them. Hundreds of residents of Bhim Nagar in Vidyavihar walked from HDIL project-affected tenements at Kohinoor in Kurla to N ward in Ghatkopar.

Last week, the civic body put up a notice to vacate building number 7 in Kohinoor and move to Mahul in Chembur where alternative accommodation had been made for project-affected families. The decision came after the high court ordered BMC to shift the residents.

In January, Mehta had helped shift around 400 residents of Bhim Nagar in Vidyavihar, who live near the Tansa water pipeline, to Kohinoor at Kurla after their slums were razed.

Former opposition leader in the BMC Pravin Chheda, who was leading the morcha, alleged that this was nothing but cheating. "Just before the BMC elections, Prakash Mehta and MP Kirit Somaiya with the help of BMC had shifted Tansa slum dwellers to Kurla. Now, they want the slum dwellers to go to Mahul. If that was the case, why did BMC shift them to Kohinoor in the first place?" said Chheda.

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